Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who heads a faith foundation, said justifying Ishag’s treatment in the name of religion was “a brutal and sickening distortion of faith and we must unite in calling for her release”.

“We must fight to protect freedom of belief, strive to allow people to worship the god they want or to worship none,” he said, according to The Times newspaper.

Meanwhile former defence secretary Liam Fox said Britain should reconsider whether it was acceptable to give aid money to countries which allow such treatment.

The issue is, do we continue to support Sudan with aid, or stop it, hurting the very people it is being given…. Or does the UK government do something more substantial like placing sanctions the Sudanese authorities and officials (like US has with Russia) to make its leaders govern their religious sector with more rigorous rules of law that the rest of the world is doing. Isn’t this the 21st century and not the 7th century?